The present invention broadly relates to chairs and, more specifically, concerns a new and improved construction of reclining chair.
The chair of the present development is of the type comprising a seat or seat portion which can be pivoted about a horizontal pivot shaft rearwardly into an inclined or reclined position, and a backrest or backrest portion is mounted at the seat. This backrest, during the pivoting of the seat, likewise pivots into an inclined or reclined position about a shaft arranged at the seat, but owing to the operation of a reclining mechanism which comes into play the backrest moves through a larger pivot angle than that of the seat.
Chairs, particularly office chairs, of this type of design have been known to the art for quite some time. They afford an appreciable seating comfort, since, on the one hand, they provide a good support of the back of the user in the starting or work position by virtue of the practically vertical position of the backrest, and, on the other hand, however, in the rearwardly inclined or reclined position of the chair render possible a relaxed sitting of the user, when assuming the so-called relaxed or reclined position.
However, such type of chairs possess certain drawbacks. If the angle between the seat and the backrest enlarges in the manner explained, then the upper portion of the body of the user does not simply carry out a pivotal movement, rather there occurs a movement which is a composite of different superimposed movements. The result of such resultant movement is that the back of the user, during reclining of the backrest, performs a movement where each individual point or location of the user's back moves through a rather steep downwardly descending curve. However, the backrest cannot follow such movements. Even the backrest moves since it is mounted at the rear end of the seat, and this end during downward tilting also pivots downwardly while it simultaneously performs the pivotal movement. However, its movement curve is less steep, so that there occurs a relative movement between the back of the user and the backrest.